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rode to Savannah GA over the weekend to visit a friend, its right at 550 miles one way from my place in mississippi. bike preformed flawlessly other than the blasted low fuel warning coming on every 120 miles or so knowing theres 180 in the tank. just use the tripmeter and look for gas around the 160 mark and its good.(note you can get by with this in the eastern us, dont try it west of arkansas, you will wind up pushing out there.)
at any rate the bike did fine, the sargent seat I have on it caused me some concern at first because I tend to sit forward against the tank and I didnt think I had enough material under my 200 lb self. 550 miles later I got off the bike and thought well, Im not hurting I guess it works after all. for those of you with longer arms who can sit a little farther back, just sit back and enjoy the ride sitting on the wider portion of the seat.
the zero gravity sport touring shield with the mra vario extender did its job keeping most of the wind/buffeting out of my helmet and was a godsend on the return trip in 400 miles of rain.
I did the trip loaded with 2 days clothes and shaving kit in one saddlebag.
street shoes and a heavy fleece pullover in the other. had the givi 45 on the back with camping gear I never got to use because my planned 2 day return leg along the gulf coast(OYSTERS,FRIED GROUPER) was absolutely flooded, oh well.
I ran 80-85 on the interstates and still got 38 mpg with all the bags on and the big shield. theres about 5k on the BT 023gt's and theyre squared off from all the highway miles but still serviceable and may get another 2-3 k out of them hopefully.
all in all it was as boring as it sounds, everything worked like I hoped it would, this was the first cross country trip for the big zook and it did fine.
have to give credit to aerostitch, the roadcrafter light I bought in november didnt leak a drop and I stayed dry thru 400 plus miles of rain at 80+mph I think it is now fully broken in,,,,finally. same for the tourmaster solution 2.0 boots, dry feet after 8 hours of muck. pretty good for a $110 pair of boots. this is the 2nd pair of these the originals were the 1.0 version and still work just look like crap after 60k miles or so. so I got the newer ones. to those who ride in cool weather, get a pinlock faceshield, its spendy but worth every penny when the weather goes to crap. I didnt have any fogging issues all weekend in 40-50 degree temps and plenty of rain. and heated gear/gloves are beyond value, stayed toasty all 1100 miles of the trip, get a full sleeve liner, I have 3 vests in the closet theyre fine for a light chill but when its nasty out the heated sleeves/gloves cant be beat.
thats about it, pretty boring trip really, nothing broke, nothing untoward happened and just a bunch of miles in some terrible weather.
I had been griping about this bike a bit, Im used to a much bigger more touring oriented concours, I still miss the barn door fairing of the big beast in the rain and cold but this lightweight sport-touring rig did fine all weekend, couldnt really ask for more from it, Ill have to quit griping about it now. big bend and the desert southwest are on deck for this spring, should be good for it.
at any rate the bike did fine, the sargent seat I have on it caused me some concern at first because I tend to sit forward against the tank and I didnt think I had enough material under my 200 lb self. 550 miles later I got off the bike and thought well, Im not hurting I guess it works after all. for those of you with longer arms who can sit a little farther back, just sit back and enjoy the ride sitting on the wider portion of the seat.
the zero gravity sport touring shield with the mra vario extender did its job keeping most of the wind/buffeting out of my helmet and was a godsend on the return trip in 400 miles of rain.
I did the trip loaded with 2 days clothes and shaving kit in one saddlebag.
street shoes and a heavy fleece pullover in the other. had the givi 45 on the back with camping gear I never got to use because my planned 2 day return leg along the gulf coast(OYSTERS,FRIED GROUPER) was absolutely flooded, oh well.
I ran 80-85 on the interstates and still got 38 mpg with all the bags on and the big shield. theres about 5k on the BT 023gt's and theyre squared off from all the highway miles but still serviceable and may get another 2-3 k out of them hopefully.
all in all it was as boring as it sounds, everything worked like I hoped it would, this was the first cross country trip for the big zook and it did fine.
have to give credit to aerostitch, the roadcrafter light I bought in november didnt leak a drop and I stayed dry thru 400 plus miles of rain at 80+mph I think it is now fully broken in,,,,finally. same for the tourmaster solution 2.0 boots, dry feet after 8 hours of muck. pretty good for a $110 pair of boots. this is the 2nd pair of these the originals were the 1.0 version and still work just look like crap after 60k miles or so. so I got the newer ones. to those who ride in cool weather, get a pinlock faceshield, its spendy but worth every penny when the weather goes to crap. I didnt have any fogging issues all weekend in 40-50 degree temps and plenty of rain. and heated gear/gloves are beyond value, stayed toasty all 1100 miles of the trip, get a full sleeve liner, I have 3 vests in the closet theyre fine for a light chill but when its nasty out the heated sleeves/gloves cant be beat.
thats about it, pretty boring trip really, nothing broke, nothing untoward happened and just a bunch of miles in some terrible weather.
I had been griping about this bike a bit, Im used to a much bigger more touring oriented concours, I still miss the barn door fairing of the big beast in the rain and cold but this lightweight sport-touring rig did fine all weekend, couldnt really ask for more from it, Ill have to quit griping about it now. big bend and the desert southwest are on deck for this spring, should be good for it.
BTW I ride my bike from Connecticut to Adairsville Georgia to visit my parents and never so much as a hiccup! And yeah the empty so early is annoying but like I always tell people you gotta be a IDIOT to run out of gas with it! 
